speaking of untimely awards. what does this whole fiscal farce say about a governor, a mayor, a 13 person city council and oh ya, a certain mr. sam tyler who thought it was just peachy to hand this same company a $46.5 million dollar tax subsidy. there were a few people who actually stood up and said this was wrong. shirley kressel and the 2 person undermanned and undefunded boston fin-com. city council member arroyo jr. also had the stones to say while he was voting for the subsidy, he felt he was doing so under coercion. a certain mr. mcgrory and some of his colleagues said zippo.ma

it seems jokes are all over the place.that organization ain't alone in awarding somebody for their efforts. a certain local journalist was recently awarded something or other for his efforts. it must have been a white feather for his silence on issues of right or wrong. ma

It's good to see a mainstream journalist take on the outrageous, incestuous mafia that runs our nation's corporations and boardrooms. Believe it, Liberty Mutual is no different than all the rest. And the most important part of the column was the part about blowing up the corporate governance system. Amen. Tax laws need to be completely reworked and corporation laws as well. Shareholders need to be impowered. Start with all executive pay being set by a vote of all shareholders and go from there. Keep pounding at this Brian.

Please keep this up. These pigs need to do a walk of shame in the media. How about names and what town they live in? I'd like to give them a "Shout Out" at the local barbershop or supermarket or wherever goons like this hang out. "well, if it isn't one of the pigs at Liberty Mutual....! How are things with YOU lately??"

Looking thru the list of Liberty board members one name jumps out _Willam Van Faasen - who made the headlines for an extravagant exit package a couple of years ago. McGrory might of checked on how many of the Liberty board approved that give away. The moral of this story is to have your friends decide your compensation --so long as they are qualified to do it by also belonging to the 1 %

rwc2: "It's good to see a mainstream journalist take on the outrageous, incestuous mafia that runs our nation's corporations and boardrooms. " Yes, rwc2. And wouldn't it be helpful if local tv news (?) would take extended looks at these issues rather than focusing on whatever video they find available through sources. Isn't it outrageous that we watch some bear in Colorado or some light plane crash in Florida as news? And, if any mention is made of a pertinent fact, it gets about 10 seconds of abridged talk that only leaves more questions. The only decent news I've found is Public Broadcasting's News Hour.

How many jobs could have been created at Liberty Mutual with $50 million a year? That would have hired numerous customer service agents, or claims reps, or any other front line people who have to deal with the public every day. You know, the people like the rest of us who don't fly around on private planes, or live in private gated communities on golf courses. It was stated that Liberty Mutual makes lots of donations to organizations and the July 4th fire works. How much more could have been donated to medical research, or food and shelter for the homeless or any other worthy cause. How far would $1 million go to the Pine Street Inn? Now if you mulitiply this times all the other companies represented on the board with their outrageous pay packages how much money could be used to hire more people, fund worthy causes, and make the area a better place to live? Greedy SOB's!

I'm no history buff but, in the past, people have risen up against "the haves" when income disparity hits a tipping point. Unfortunately the media seems to be colluding with "the haves" by keeping people distracted with nonsense on tv, on the internet and in print. People, who struggle every day to tread water, are more interested in Kim Kardashian than how they're getting screwed by their government and "the haves". I wonder what it's going to take to get people to rise up against the tyranny we deal with on a daily basis. Wake the f up people!! Oh, and thanks Brian for shining a light on this excess!!

Brian, my gut on this is that you are complaining about the way American business in general is run from the board of directors perspective. That's fine, and you may be correct, or not, but emphasizing the money aspect so much makes you sound simply like a communist, unionist rabble rouser simply compaining about your lot in life (and for the benefit of your followers). >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> So, how about some information about how "good" American boards of directors differ? If you can't find any, then how about "good" foreign boards of directors. It occurs to me that the Apple board pretty much did whatever Steve Jobs wanted, and if they stopped Larry Ellison was ready to buy the company and give Steve what he wanted. So, this was a benign dictatorship. And benign dictatorship is preferable to management by committee (where you are most like to have management quality return to the mean -- the mathematical mean, that is). After all, an MBA means you can APPEAR to others to be good at business, not that you ARE actually GOOD (but appearance is often part of it for those of use who are not as gifted. and perhaps lucky, as Steve Jobs). >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Finally, many of us figured out long ago that most public awards, and accolades are more about an attempt to burnish the awarding organization's image than they are about any real qualities of the recipient (not that the recipient might also be worthy).

Now that you got your mojo going Brian, zero in on the muck that exists within our state and local governments.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your recent columns on this issue.